Portal:Digital Information Overload

What is Digital Information Overload?

Information overload refers to the increasingly frequent state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic. This problem can lead to low productivity, frustration, stress, and poor decision making.

Information Overload: Past and Present The term “Information Overload” was coined by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, Future Shock. According to Wikipedia, information overload is “the state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic.” The overabundance of information is a result of both a large quantity of existing information and a high rate of production of new information. (“Information explosion” refers to the high rate at which new information is published.) The problem of information overload in today’s digital world is different from the problem faced by scholars in the 16th century. Computers and the internet have amplified the problem. Besides making it easier to publish new information and store archives of old material, the level of connectedness with which many of us live has made information overload a more active and interruptive problem. Konrad von Gesner, who lamented the amount of books in the mid sixteenth century, may have been overloaded with information while researching, reading, or investigating. When he was not actively working, however, he was likely able to relax and focus on that which he desired. Today, such an act is more difficult. From the businesswoman whose BlackBerry continuously notifies her of new messages which beg for her attention to the student whose essay writing is interrupted with e-mails, instant messages, and text messages, we are deluged with information. Read More... Problems The Information Quality Challenge: (from Urs's essay draft) a) information quality = “reference to a set of characteristics aimed at stating whether a ‘message’ meets the functional, cognitive, aesthetic, and ethical requirements of different stakeholders, such as information creators, administrators, users, experts, etc.” b) Current safeguards for information quality mostly apply to traditional (mass-scale, demand-driven) media (dominated by small number of professionals in commercial, hierarchical, centralized media companies): Indirect ex ante regulation of broadcasting, for instance, in Europe Code of Practices (e.g. UK), Press Councils, Ombudsmen Code of Ethics, voluntarily adopted by news organizations and media companies Ex post interventions, like lawsuits against libel, defamation c) Now, new modes of information production (large number of non-professionals involved; highly decentralized; different set of principles and motivations) Large-scale context shifts High level of access to information Quality assessment at the edges (users) Read More...

Narratives Elizabeth stares at her screen. It feels a bit like an extension of herself, if she’s honest about it. Or like a best friend. Especially during a boring, boring class. She’s pretending to pay attention to a truly stultifying lecture on Justice. It’s part of the core curriculum and something she more or less has to take in her first year of college. The teacher is droning on. IM from Elizabeth to Keisha, a friend from Second Life who is taking the class as a distance student: “u watching this? This guy is just mailing it in, K. What a waste.” Then: “I wonder if he thinks about the fact that we pay for this.” Read More... Solutions The possible solutions fall into the four categories of Lawrence Lessig's modes of regulation: markets, social norms, code, and law. (From Urs' essay draft) Markets Reputation systems Quality labels, trustmarks Social Norms Codes of conduct for bloggers, transparency Policies and guidelines at Wikipedia, Netiquette Law Disclosure standards in health regulation (quality standards, procedural requirements, etc.) Truth-in-advertising regulation Right to correct wrong information Code Rating, filtering (ICRA, content advisor) Meta-data: tagging as a collaborative way to organize information according to folksonomies, (i.e. emergent grassroots taxonomies), see, e.g., Weinberger: Why Tagging Matters Read More... Relevant Research and Articles Information Overload, Wikipedia Lyman/Varian: How Much Information? 2003 Living and Working in the Information Society: Quality of Life in a Digital World (2003) Eppler/Mengis: A Framework for Information Overload Research in Organizations (2003) P.Magrassi, B.Rosser, "Net Illusion: 'Information Is A Commodity'", Gartner, Research Report DF-12-7162, 1 February 2001 Kimble/Grimshaw/Hildreth: The Role of Contextual Clues in the Creation of Information Overload (1998) Read More...